I bought a truffle!

[jasonr]

I just went into our local high-end grocery and picked up my first ever truffle. I had never even been in the same room with a fresh one until now, lol. It's a white truffle. Cost me $60 at $12 per gram (which means about $5,400 per pound!).

I'm planning to chop half of it up, mix it into butter, and rub it under the skin of a chicken for roasting, just like Gordon Ramsay. The remaining half I'll mix into some fresh pasta dough for spaghetti tomorrow night.

Pretty cool!

 

[JoeV]

WOW! That sucker better be pretty darn tasty at that price. Be sure to let us know how it turns out.

 

[BreezyCooking]

You're going to shave it before you chop it, aren't you? Truffles are pretty potent, which is just one reason why they're so expensive - a little goes a long way. Frankly, that one truffle should go longer than one chicken & one pasta dish.

 

[jasonr]

You're going to shave it before you chop it, aren't you? Truffles are pretty potent, which is just one reason why they're so expensive - a little goes a long way. Frankly, that one truffle should go longer than one chicken & one pasta dish.

Yeah... You know I saw Gordon Ramsay using a madelaine on it. (which I don't have) But I could have sworn the recipe was to use the whole black truffle for the turkey. Since I'm just making a chicken, I figured half would be good enough. It's not a really big truffle, maybe 5 grams.

What do you think? Should I be using less?

Keep in mind, it's not going as a garnish for the pasta. I am actually working it into the pasta dough itself. I figure I can make a batch of dough and turn that into two spaghetti meals. So it will really be used for three meals.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Okay, you know what I'd do? You probably have some type of grater - even just the usual metal box grater? Grate a tiny bit of truffle on the largest grater end - that's virtually the same as shaving - & mix it into some softened butter, spread it onto some toasted baguette & see how it tastes to you. This should give you some idea of how potent your little funghi is.

Chopping or even mincing truffle right off the bulb really isn't the way to go. Even if you have to go out & buy a box grater or a little slicer, it's worth it. I have a tiny little "garlic slicer" that cost $10.00 (works with garlic, shallots, small mushrooms) & a mandoline that cost all of $14.00. I've had both for over 14 years now & they're still going strong. Decent workable cooking stuff doesn't have to cost an arm & a leg.

 

[sattie]

You gonna share????

I want to hear what you end up making with it!! Congrats!

 

[jasonr]

Okay, you know what I'd do? You probably have some type of grater - even just the usual metal box grater? Grate a tiny bit of truffle on the largest grater end - that's virtually the same as shaving - & mix it into some softened butter, spread it onto some toasted baguette & see how it tastes to you. This should give you some idea of how potent your little funghi is.

Chopping or even mincing truffle right off the bulb really isn't the way to go. Even if you have to go out & buy a box grater or a little slicer, it's worth it. I have a tiny little "garlic slicer" that cost $10.00 (works with garlic, shallots, small mushrooms) & a mandoline that cost all of $14.00. I've had both for over 14 years now & they're still going strong. Decent workable cooking stuff doesn't have to cost an arm & a leg.

I've got plenty of graters. I'll use that horizontal microplane one, the one I use to shave parmesan and zest lemons.

I double-checked the recipe. Ramsay uses an entire french black truffle (from the looks of it, about the size of a golf ball) for a whole turkey. I'm using only a chicken, and my truffle is way smaller, but white. (maybe about 1/4 the size).

I'm gonna go with half for the truffle butter, and then the other half for the pasta. That would seem to make sense, assuming the white Italian variety are more potent than the french black variety that Ramsay was using. Really, I think I should probably be using the whole truffle for just the chicken, but I do want to try it in the pasta too, so I'm gonna do it this way. I hope I get enough punch out of it to really taste it in the chicken.

 

[BreezyCooking]

That's great. Please - do come back here & give us your after-truffle-dining thoughts!!!

 

[jasonr]

Well, the chicken is in the oven. I ended up using the whole truffle for the butter. I didn't want to risk using too little and getting an underwhelming flavour. So I went for broke.

We'll see how it goes!

 

[jasonr]

Well, the chicken tasted alot like roast chicken, LOL.

The distinctive smell of truffle was definitely there, but I'm just not sure that it added anything to the actual taste. Unfortunately, as I've long known, I just have a really bad sense of taste, so maybe I just couldn't detect it. Or maybe if I ate it side-by-side with non-truffle roast chicken I would have noticed the difference. You people with decent senses of taste should count yourselves lucky.

But one thing did bother me, and that was the smell. When I put the leftovers in my fridge, it really funked up the fridge with that truffle odour. It occurred to me that like garlic, truffle must get into the bloodstream and make you stink. That is definitely not a good thing, especially if the stink lasts more than a day. I don't need to be stinking of truffle if I'm going out on a date!

Anyway, it was an interesting experiment. The flavour had no effect on me given that it was buried in all of that other stuff, but I'll consider using truffles in the future for roast chicken if I'm cooking for someone else who might appreciate it better.

Tonight I'm going to make a fresh pasta and try putting some jarred black truffle into the dough and see if that does something. I do recall eating some high-end store-bought pasta with truffle in it and thinking that it had some extra something to it that made it better. I am hoping that with something blander like plain pasta, in a less complex dish without so many overlapping flavours, I'll actually be able to detect and appreciate the truffle taste.

Wish me luck.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Another popular way of enjoying or trying out truffles in a "bland" food is to shave some into plain scrambled eggs.

 

[PieSusan]

Well, Jason, perhaps going with truffle oil is better for you--you get the flavor with less cost.

Or maybe, it was the truffle--did anyone else try your chicken? There are different grades from what I understand.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Another thought - the age of the truffle? Might that have something to do with it? Although you did say that it did have a very strong aroma, which would make me think that the truffle itself was just fine.

I do love truffle oil. Have a bottle of White Truffle Oil that is simply glorious drizzled over mashed potatoes, orzo pasta, scallops, etc., etc. Nice aroma, color, & flavor.

 

[snack_pack85]

Is there anyone who could explain the flavor dynamics of truffle? Is there anything that it is comprable to? I am very interested in trying it out, but I have no idea what it tastes like.